HAEtc HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD "'t t BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 .2.)_ Location: Buffalo, Erie County, New York Date: 1897-1954 Designer: Multiple; see individual elevator reports listed on p.2 Builder: Multiple; see individual elevator reports listed on p.2 Status: Variable; see individual elevator reports listed on p.2 Significance: The grain elevators of Buffalo comprise the most outstanding collection of extant grain elevators in the United States, and collectively represent the variety of construction materials, building forms, and technological innovations that revolutionized the handling of grain in this country. Project Information: The documentation of Buffalo's grain elevators was prepared by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), National Park Service, in 1990 and 1991. The project was co-sponsored by the Industrial Heritage Committee, Inc., of Buffalo, Lorraine Pierro, President, with the cooperation of The Pillsbury Company, Mark Norton, Plant Manager, Walter Dutka, Senior Mechanical Engineer, and with the valuable assistance of Henry Baxter, Henry Wollenberg, and Jerry Malloy. The HAER documentation was prepared under the supervision of Robert Kapsch, Chief, HABS/HAER, and Eric DeLony, Chief and Principal Architect, HAER. The project was managed by Robbyn Jackson, Architect, HAER, and the team consisted of: Craig Strong, Supervising Architect; Todd Croteau, Christopher Payne, Patricia Reese, architects; Thomas Leary, Supervising Historian; John Healey, and Elizabeth Sholes, historians. Large-format photography was done by Jet Lowe, HAER photographer. Historians: Thomas E. Leary, John R. Healey, and Elizabeth C. Sholes, 1990-1991 (The overview history in HAER No. NY-239 was written by John R. Healey.) BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 (Page 2) This is one in a series of HAER reports for the Buffalo Grain Elevator Project. HAER No. NY-239, "Buffalo Grain Elevators," contains an overview history of the elevators. The following elevators have separate reports: NY-240 Great Northern Elevator NY-241 Standard Elevator NY-242 Wollenberg Grain & Seed Elevator NY-243 Concrete-Central Elevator NY-244 Washburn Crosby Elevator NY-245 Connecting Terminal Elevator NY-246 Spencer Kellogg Elevator NY-247 Cooperative Grange League Federation NY-248 Electric Elevator NY-249 American Elevator NY-250 Perot Elevator NY-251 Lake & Rail Elevator NY-252 Marine "A" Elevator NY-253 Superior Elevator NY-254 Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator NY-256 Urban Elevator NY-257 H-0 Oats Elevator NY-258 Kreiner Malting Elevator NY-259 Meyer Malting Elevator NY-260 Eastern states Elevator In addition, the Appendix of HAER No. NY-239 contains brief notations on the following elevators: Buffalo Cereal Elevator Cloverleaf Milling Co. Elevator Dakota Elevator Dellwood Elevator Great Eastern Elevator Iron Elevator John Kam Malting Elevator Monarch Elevator Pratt Foods Elevator Ralston Purina Elevator Riverside Malting Elevator BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 (Page 3) BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS OVERVIEW REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . • 5 The Wooden Elevator. 7 The Steel and Tile Elevator. 12 The Concrete Elevator . 24 The Evolution of the Cylindrical Concrete Bin . 29 The Evolution of the Rectangular Concrete Bin . 49 The Evolution of Bin Arrangements . 55 The Evolution of Foundations and Basements . 68 The Evolution of Headhouses, Workhouses and Galleries . 81 The Evolution of Slip Forming. 85 Building an Elevator 99 Conclusion . 113 Endnotes . 125 Appendix . 134 Buffalo Cereal Elevator ..............••. 135 Cloverleaf Milling Co. Elevator. .136 Dakota Elevator. • . .137 Dellwood Elevator .•..........••....•. 139 Great Eastern Elevator ................. 142 Iron Elevator .•.•............•..... 144 John Kam Malting Elevator .............•.. 146 Monarch Elevator ...•................ 147 Pratt Foods Elevator ..••.............. 149 Ralston Purina Elevator •................ 1SO Riverside Malting Elevator ............... 152 Bibliography . 153 BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 (Page 4) INTRODUCTION The development of the Great Lakes grain trade created unrivalled concentrations of grain elevators in the ports of Duluth and Buffalo in the U.S. and in the Thunder Bay region of Canada. 1 Of these elevator groupings, those in Buffalo became particularly famed sources of inspiration for European proponents of the International style of architecture. Le Corbusier viewed the American grain elevators and factories as "the magnificent first fruits of the new age," in which "the American Engineers overwhelm with their calculations our expiring architecture."2 The aesthetic treatment given to these structures by the architects of the "modern movement" loosely related the forms of the buildings to their functions, but failed to look at the design and construction of these buildings. Subsequent commentators have followed this approach at the expense of a deeper understanding of the evolutionary trends occurring in Buffalo elevator construction and in elevator design throughout America. Of the three major elevator groupings, that in Buffalo provides the most comprehensive inventory of structures, spanning an era of elevator construction of about 110 years. The city was once well-endowed with representatives of earlier structural forms, particularly those of wood and iron, but only one example of each remains extant. During the twentieth century, about forty individual concrete elevators were built in Buffalo. Although the grain trade suffered a dramatic decline from the late 1950s, Buffalo's legacy of concrete grain elevators remains remarkably intact; the Dellwood and Ralston Purina elevators are the only substantial complexes that have been demolished. The physical evidence provided by the structures is supplemented by an equally remarkable survival of primary documentary sources. The Buffalo City Hall vaults house a collection of original drawings, contracts, engineering calculations, construction dates and estimated costs. HAER reports of individual elevators have been compiled by collation of city hall documents supplemented by information from contemporary trade journals, fire insurance maps, company records and publications, oral interviews, secondary sources, and a variety of other sources. Contemporary evaluations of elevator building design and practice are few. The construction of concrete elevators was concentrated in the hands of a small group of specialist companies. The lack of coverage by the engineering and construction press may have been due to a proprietorial attitude on behalf of elevator construction companies anxious to protect their position. Despite BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 {Page 5) the absence of contemporary descriptions of evolutionary developments in elevator design, primary sources available in Buffalo provide a uniquely large and detailed sample of concrete elevator construction methods. The following overview history attempts to identify changes and trends in elevator building practice, and to explain these observations both by reference to contemporary construction and engineering practice, and by analysis of particular requirements of individual promoters. THE WOODEN ELEVATOR Situated at a natural point of transshipment on the route eastward to the eastern seaboard of the United States and to Europe, Buffalo's grain trade benefitted from the development of agriculture on the western prairies during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. By 1894, thirty-six grain elevators with an aggregate capacity of 15,430,000 bushels were equipped to receive, store, condition and ship grain from the Buffalo waterfront. In both function and form, their lineage descended from the principles and practices established by Joseph Dart in the first elevator built on the Buffalo waterfront in 1842. Dart's building was comprised of a series of grain bins above which was a "cupola" containing weighing and spouting equipment. Incoming grain was elevated to the top of the cupola and spouted by gravity via weighing hoppers to storage. Outgoing grain was drawn off from the bottom of the storage bins to be raised once more to the top of the cupola, where it was weighed out and spouted to barge, train or wagon. The elevator's marine leg was crucial to these functions. Dart's pioneering application of this technology permitted grain to be raised with ease by means of a series of scoop-like buckets attached to a continuous belt. Dart deployed the elevator leg in two distinctly different forms; the "stiff leg" elevated grain in the elevator house, within which it was fixed, and the "loose leg" elevated grain from ships into the elevator house. When not in use, the loose leg was stored in a raised position within the elevator house, requiring a distinctive tower above the cupola roof. If a ship's cargo was to be discharged, the loose leg could be lowered directly into the hold. Dart's elevator established enduring principles of grain handling and storage. By 1894 developments in the speed and diversity of grain transfer systems had promoted a corresponding evolution in building form. The application of horizontal transfer systems dramatically affected the overall capacity of the storage house. In the absence of horizontal transfer systems, all bins had to be in sufficiently close proximity to the elevator leg to receive grain by direct gravity spouting. Horizontal conveyors permitted BUFFALO GRAIN ELEVATORS HAER No. NY-239 (Page 6) the transfer of grain to bins at a distance from the fixed